by Kim Hornsby
Tina swayed. “Strange thing is I’ve hardly had anything to drink, because Jamey said not to!”
Noble filled the doorway and glanced at them sympathetically. “Are you alright, Ti?”
Elizabeth shut the door in his face, and Tina tried not to laugh. “Sorry,” she called above the party music. Then she whispered, “I’ve only had two or three glasses of wine the whole night, Mom.” Tina crossed the bedroom floor, opened the door and threw her arms out to Noble, who was still standing there. “Sorry. Oh. Suddenly I don’t feel very...” She rushed past him to the bathroom.
“I’ll help her, Elizabeth.” Noble’s voice broke through the din of conversation and music from the party room.
Hugging the toilet to empty her stomach of the evening’s expensive wine and food, Tina wondered why she was sick. A cold sweat invaded her body.
A wet cloth felt bracingly good on her face. “Thanks, Noble.” She was hardly able to see her swervey self in the mirror. She had to go back out to join her guests. “You’re okay now, Ti.” Noble’s voice was comforting.
When they opened the door, her mother’s stern face greeted her. God forbid Elizabeth Greene should ever come into a bathroom where her daughter was puking. She did look a bit worried. “Say good night to everyone, Tina. You’re going to bed.” It wasn’t a question, or even a suggestion. She handed her daughter a glass of water.
“Good idea. I feel better, by the way. But first...” Tina broke free of her mother to weave a path into the great room. Holding her glass above her head, she attempted a whistle, but her lips didn’t work. Pepper quieted the room full of revelers and then motioned for Tina to continue.
“Friends, thank you so very, very much for coming to the first birthday party I’ve had since Hank disappeared.” She swayed a bit, and someone put an arm out to catch her. “I say ‘disappeared,’ because we still haven’t found the body.” Uncomfortable expressions blanketed the room. “Oh, it’s okay, because if we never find Hank’s body, I can pretend he just left me…” Her voice trailed off and she tried to walk among her guests, her glass still raised above her head.
“Anyway…” She sighed. “Long story short, I know I’ve been a mess, but thanks to my mother and father who just flew in, and to my dear friend Noble, I’m surviving.” She winked at him. “Oh, and Pepper too. Thanks, sweetie, for this grand soirée. And, thanks for coming, everyone.” Tina took a drink of her water and Pepper rushed in before she fell over. She helped Tina into her bedroom.
Tina flopped on the bed. Obi barked, thinking it was playtime, while Pepper spoke to her mother in the doorway, the only recognizable word being “Noble.” Her mother’s brows were wrinkled, her lips pursed. Lately, Tina got the impression that Pepper disliked Noble.
“This party is over. Thank you for coming.” Her father’s voice was firm in the other room, where he was probably herding people to the door. His stern words made her feel like the party was some teenager’s attempt at being naughty. No one would linger. People obeyed Philip Greene.
“Thanks for coming!” Tina yelled. “Thanks for the party, Pep!” she called as Pepper left the bedroom on her mother’s orders. Obi licked Tina’s face, and she giggled. “Oh, Obi. Thanks for coming!”
From her vantage point on the bed, she could see through her patio door to the deck. People shuffled down the outside stairs, like an orderly crowd at the end of a concert.
Noble entered the room and she kicked off her shoes. “Sleep well, sweetie. Happy birthday.” She smiled at him. “Thanks.”
Philip and Elizabeth stood in the bedroom doorway, talking in whispers. She didn’t want to imagine what they were saying about Noble. Or her.
Noble joined the conversation in the hall, nodding at her parents like all three were in cahoots on something. Elizabeth ignored him, as usual. As Tina’s eyes got heavier and she drifted off into oblivion, the last thing she remembered was her mother rudely turning her back on her dear friend Noble.
***
Jamey still hadn’t heard from Tina by 11:30 p.m. and after an unsuccessful attempt to connect to her from miles away he drove to her house. If the party was still going strong, he’d wait in his car for everyone to leave.
But when he pulled up to the house, it was dark, and the only vehicles were the usual two trucks. It looked like the festivities had been over for a while. Had she forgotten about jumping?
Standing under her bedroom window, he closed his eyes, took a deep breath, and exhaled slowly. He sensed that Tina was up there, but someone else was in the bedroom with her. Noble. He’d know that feeling anywhere—it was like a cement wall of hostility. Noble’s presence might explain why she hadn’t called him. Tina had once mentioned that in the early days of her grieving, they slept together for comfort. “Just sleep,” she’d pointed out, like it mattered to him. Turned out it did matter. The idea prickled him, but Jamey reminded himself that Tina’s love life was none of his business. In the darkness of the front yard, he stared at the window. Should he risk a jump? She’d promised to have only one glass of wine with dinner, but when Katie called him at ten o’clock to invite him over, the party sounded like a big bash. Laughing, shouting, music. Must’ve ended quickly. Focusing, he sensed that something happened to end it. Something to do with her father. And now, she was sleeping with Noble. She must’ve been upset.
Jamey lowered himself to sit on the grass. His back rested against a papaya tree, and the warmth of the tree leaked through his T-shirt to his back. He couldn’t very well sneak upstairs to see what was going on. So far, his presence in her yard had gone undetected, but there was no breeze to carry his scent through the screen windows to Obi.
What did Hank think of Noble sleeping in his bed? Fingering the Percocet bottle in his pocket, Jamey considered his recent jumps. His two theories about the headache involved distance from the dreamer and drinking. He wasn’t touching Tina this time. If he jumped, and he detected she’d been drinking, he could always leave the dream. If she appeared inebriated in the dream. Prisoners in Afghanistan weren’t under the influence of alcohol, but they were drugged and never appeared loopy in the dream so that idea might be unreliable.
An hour passed as he waited in the peaceful silence of the yard. He changed positions several times, and at one point a rat ran by, unaware of his presence.
Finally, Jamey felt what he’d been waiting for. Tina was falling into a dream. He imagined himself alongside her in the journey, breathing in and out. With the backward pull, he let go and fell in.
Not touching. God dammit, it worked!
He landed in an empty room. Muffled voices drifted in from outside the door. He was in a small room—white walls, twin bed, no sheets, and no other furniture. A faint light from the door made it possible to see that the mattress had a striped pattern.
He snuck up to the doorway and peeked into the dark hall. Candlelight flickered on the wall up ahead, indicating an open door. Soft voices drifted from the room. Tina’s was one of them. Curiosity took him down the hall.
“No,” Tina said, first playfully, and then more emphatically. “I said no.” During the conversational moments Jamey moved closer, until he could hear better. The other voice was a man’s whisper.
“I can’t,” Tina said.
“Yes, you can, Ti.”
“I know you want this, Noble, but you need to understand something.”
At the sound of Noble’s name, Jamey leaned closer.
“It’s hard to explain, but I’m in your dream.”
Jamey held his breath.
“I’m not sure how this is happening,” she said.
What the fuck? Tina jumped? Jamey listened.
“Ti, I don’t care if it’s a dream.” Noble chuckled. “You look pretty dreamy in that little…”
“Noble, wait.”
Sheets rustled in the room.
“Okay, Noble,” she chuckled. “I’ll be right back.” Her voice was husky and seductive. Footsteps padded across the floor. As she exited
the room and rounded the corner, Jamey gently covered her mouth and signaled for her to be quiet. She recognized him and followed him down the hall. Once inside the other bedroom, Jamey whispered, “Did you jump into this dream?”
“Is that possible?” Tina looked horrified.
“Are you trying to get out?” He needed to be succinct.
Noble called from deep inside the next room. “Ti, I’m waiting.” His voice was filled with suggestion.
“I want to wake up,” she whispered.
“Where were you when you arrived?”
“In bed with Noble.”
He frowned. “I have an idea.” He’d never jumped with another jumper before, but he was hoping this would work.
“Ti?” Noble sounded impatient.
“If I can’t pull you out with me,” Jamey said, “just go back to where you arrived and do what we’re going to try here.” Jamey held fast to Tina’s hand. “This is where I came in. I’m going to count to three. Bend your knees and jump on three. Imagine yourself back in your own bed.”
Tina looked worried. “Don’t leave me.”
“I’ll try not to, but remember, if it doesn’t work, go back to Noble and do this. Regardless of what Noble says, okay? I can try to help from the other end by waking you.” Tina nodded.
“Ready?”
Tina looked scared.
“One, two, three.” They took a leap into the air. There was a sucking sensation into blackness. He could feel Tina’s desperate grip on his hand. Then the feeling was gone, and he woke on Tina’s front lawn. A headache loomed. Already. He had to get something into his bloodstream as soon as possible, just in case.
“Jamey.” Tina stood above him on the deck.
Jamey popped the Percocet dry and raced upstairs. Noble was still asleep in Tina’s bed. They continued to the bathroom.
“What the hell?” she whispered, two feet from Jamey’s face.
He wasn’t sure if she was asking about dream jumping, his presence, or his interference. “You jumped.” He mumbled through the pills in his mouth.
“How?”
“Beats me. I’m as shocked as you.” Jamey stuck his mouth under the faucet and gulped several times.
“Why is Noble in my bed?”
“I don’t know. You invited him?”
“I don’t even remember going to bed last night.”
This was bad.
She looked at Jamey, her eyebrows knitted together. “I dream jumped?”
“Seems so.”
“Oh. My. God. My life just keeps getting weirder.” Tina glanced in the mirror and then quickly crossed her arms over her scantily clad chest. “And what am I wearing?” She gestured with her chin to the lingerie barely covering her body. “Who put this on me?”
“It’s not yours?” In one second, Jamey had Noble tried and sentenced for rape.
“Do you think I wore it back from the dream?”
Jamey had never heard of half this shit before. “In all my years of jumping, I’ve never worn clothes back from a dream. But just to be safe, you should take it off.” Then he noticed her wedding ring. Shit. The dreamer could wear metal, but jumpers could not. If she was the jumper... The headache was threatening the edge of his consciousness. Did the ring have anything to do with his pain?
Tina ran back to her bedroom and returned in a blue robe, holding the lacy lingerie in her hand. She pointed to a price tag still clinging to the garment. “I think this was a birthday present. There’s wrapping paper on my bedroom floor.” She pinched her arm, punched her stomach and blinked rapidly.
“You okay?”
“When I think I’ve woken but haven’t, I’m usually wearing something I didn’t wear to bed. I’m checking to see if I am awake.”
“You’re awake, Tina. Trust me on that. But you can’t dream jump with metal.” Jamey pointed to her wedding band. “And now that we know you’re the one who is jumping, this makes a lot more sense.”
Tina stared at the ring on her finger.
“You gotta take it off before you go to sleep from now on.” Jamey squinted against the pain in his head. His mind raced with possibilities of what had been happening if, in fact, Tina was the one who was jumping dreams. If Jamey was only piggybacking her jumps and she’d been wearing a gold wedding band, he had a lot to think about. But not now. They had to get Noble out of Tina’s bed, if that was what she wanted. If Noble was still dreaming about having sex with her, it would be a rude awakening. Literally.
Chapter 20
“Noble! Wake up.”
“What is it?”
“Why are you in my bed?”
His voice was groggy. “You asked me to stay. Are you okay now? Did you throw up again?”
“No, I’m fine, but I want to sleep alone.” Her nice tone irked Jamey in the other room.
“Are you sure?”
Jamey strained to hear. “I was having the strangest dream about us,” Noble mumbled.
“Here are your pants.” Tina’s voice was too low to decipher all her words, but “negligee” was clear enough.
“You got that for your birthday and wore it to bed.”
Okay, Tina hadn’t brought back clothing. That was good news.
Then, Noble said something Jamey couldn’t hear.
“No, Noble.”
Jamey stood, ready to run in.
“I feel ill,” she argued. “I want to sleep alone. But thanks for offering.” She was patronizing him. Jamey had to think that if he’d been the one in the sexy dream with Tina, he might be begging to stay in her bed too. He ducked back into the guest room and waited.
Noble’s steps thudded down the back stairs. From the window, Jamey watched him cross the lawn and enter his cottage. Tina’s bedroom was illuminated by a shell nightlight on the wall, just enough for Jamey to see her sobbing into a pile of tissues. He paused at the door. “Are you sad he left, or…?”
Her nose blowing was abnormally loud for such a little person.
“No, I’m not sad he left.”
He sat beside her, kissed her shoulder and waited.
She blew again. “I don’t want to jump into dreams.” She sniffed and wiped her eyes. “I’m having a hard enough time with everything. I don’t want a creepy ability, too. And why was Noble sleeping with me tonight? I have no memory of going to bed with him.” She sniffed and blew again. “Maybe we had sex.” She said the last part in a very tiny whisper. “Probably consensual, but I’ll never know if I can’t remember.” She looked at Jamey. “I don’t know which is worse, having sex with Noble and not remembering, or discovering I jumped into his horny dream.”
Jamey bristled. “Tina, this is serious if you can’t remember if you had sex with Noble, consensual or not.”
“As serious as dream jumping?” She looked pitiful. “That seems pretty horrible, if you ask me. Oh God, I feel like I’m losing my mind and there’s no way back.”
“Think about how we jumped out together. There’s always a way back, Tina.” He took her face in his hands and nodded. Jamey didn’t trust himself to say more about Noble.
“Why were you here, anyways? I thought you weren’t invited to the party?” Their faces were inches away.
Had she forgotten? “I was going to jump your dream tonight.” “Oh, yea.” She seemed disoriented.
“When I arrived, Noble was here, so I sat under the window.” He gestured to the front yard below. “And I jumped when you entered a dream.”
Tina wiped her nose. “Wow. You’re good.” She threw her pile of tissues into a wastebasket.
“I wasn’t sure it would work, but I seem to be able to piggyback your dream jumps.” He squinted at her. “Have you ever jumped someone’s dream before tonight?”
“I don’t think so, unless I jumped into that sexy dream with you? Or was that my dream and you jumping?”
Aha. There was a new possibility. “No idea. You were the jumper tonight, because you arrived in Noble’s dream before me.” She groaned.
Tina looked exasperated. “I don’t remember a lot. There was a surprise party. I drank too much, which was weird, because at dinner I only had two drinks with a lot of food, and when I got back here I only had one, or maybe none.”
“What were you drinking?” Jamey squinted.
“Wine at dinner, water here.” She pointed to the glass on the bedside table.
He picked it up and swirled the last few drops in the dim light. “Do you mind?” Jamey reached for the switch on the bedside lamp and turned it on.
“What is it?” Tina inched closer to Jamey, their shoulders touching.
“Sediment. Maybe a sleeping pill.”
“I didn’t take one, I know that.”
Jamey frowned. “It’s never good to mix alcohol with that stuff. I’ll have it analyzed tomorrow.” In the light, he noticed how drawn her face looked. “You’ve got to be exhausted. Should I leave, or stay, in case Noble comes back?” He preferred staying, but given what Tina had gone through already, she might not agree.
She sat down on the bed’s edge and put her head in her hands. “I hope I took my pills.” She looked up. “Do you have that headache again?”
“Not nearly as bad.”
“Do you think you should stay, in case you get worse? I can watch you. Or what about if I fall asleep and have the diving dream?”
His heart melted and pooled at his feet. She was still trying to help him first, and then herself. A good sign. “Maybe.” Jamey looked at her. “I’ll stay.” He knelt and took her hands in his. “I can also drive you to the clinic, if you want to do a rape test.”
The corners of her mouth twisted. “No. I couldn’t do that.” She looked away. “I just couldn’t, especially seeing Noble and I…maybe
I led him on, in my drunkenness.”
“Taking advantage of a drunken woman...” Jamey cut off the words that would impose his opinion on her. “Your choice, but if you want to go back to sleep, I’ll take the chair.”